Senate panel talks Gitmo closing

A series of Senate Democrats called urgently Wednesday for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, but appeared divided on the question of how to make that happen.

The Senate hearing hinted at disagreements about what to do with the 166 war-on-terror detainees currently at the facility, and at strong House opposition to President Barack Obama’s vow to close the detention center.

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“Every day it remains open, Guantanamo prison weakens our alliances, inspires our enemies, and calls into question our commitment to human rights,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) “I am sorry that it’s been five years since we had a hearing on Guantanamo.”

The depth of resistance in the Congress to closing the prison was hard to assess at Wednesday’s hearing. The only Republican senator to attend, Ted Cruz of Texas, sounded a highly skeptical note about the idea.

“It’s easy to say ‘close Guantanamo’ and get an applause from various audiences. The harder question, then, is what do you do with these terrorists,” Cruz said. He said a recent study by the Director of National Intelligence found that 28 percent of detainees previously released from Guantanamo were suspected or confirmed to have joined up with terrorist groups after leaving U.S. custody.

Cruz also pointed to reports earlier this week that hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters escaped from the Iraqi-government-run Abu Ghraib prison.

“That…underscores the inherent risk in relying on foreign facilities to detain known terrorists,” Cruz said. “Given the escape we just saw in Abu Ghraib, it is hard to have any confidence.”

On the question of what should be done with the prisoners at Guantanamo, there was no clear agreement among the witnesses and the senators — even those who favor closure.

Durbin said some prisoners could be released or transferred to other countries while others are brought “to the United States, where they can be tried in federal court or held under the law of war until the end of hostilities.”

However, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sounded less amenable to the concept of holding prisoners indefinitely.

“I think it’s shameful we are still even debating this issue,” Leahy said. “Countries that champion the rule of law or human rights do not lock away prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial. Countries that champion human rights do not strap down prisoners and feed them against their will.”

Feinstein noted that by the end of the Obama administration many of the prisoners at Guantanamo will have been held there for more than 15 years. “This is not the American way….It makes a myth out of our legal system,” she said.

Durbin said he and Feinstein met last week with senior administration officials to discuss transferring prisoners out of Guantanamo. “I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the administration could be doing more to close Guantanamo,” he said, while adding that such efforts are complicated by restrictions Congress has passed.

A White House spokeswoman declined to discuss the meeting in detail.

“I don’t have any specifics to offer you, but we continue to engage with the Congress on how we can work together to meet the president’s goal of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Some of the Senate Democrats also seemed to diverge from the administration’s decision to proceed with prosecutions of some detainees in military commissions at Guantanamo. The Congress authorized such tribunals most recently in 2009, when both chambers were under Democratic control.

Nevertheless, both Leahy and Feinstein said Wednesday they consider that system to be a failure.

“The military commissions system for prosecuting these detainees is not working,” Leahy said. “We’re the most powerful nation on Earth. Why do we act afraid to use the best federal court system we’ve ever seen?….The status quo at Guantanamo is untenable.”